When Phil Burns became a member of FDNY back in 1963, New York City firefighters didn’t wear masks and their fire gear consisted of rubber boots, a rubber or canvas coat, a helmet and a pair of gloves. He spent a few years crawling down long hallways full of heavy acrid smoke, smoke so thick you could cut it with a knife. Then he spent a few more years leading his men down the same kinds of hallways.

Today he is commander of FDNY’s 11th Division.

He hasn’t seen everything is his thirty-plus year career ... but he’s seen quite a bit.

And he’s got some stories to tell - from the tragic 23rd Street Fire of 1966 to the five alarm Brooklyn Navy Yard inferno in 1995; about deadly fires in the basements of abandoned buildings, about trying desperately not to sink through the melting tar on the roof of a blazing supermarket; about tough, tough fires fought with brave, courageous men in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn; about honoring his fallen FDNY brothers as a member of the FDNY Pipes & Drums Band, and trying to offer some measure of comfort to their grieving families.

He tells stories about the horrors of September 11, 2001 and FDNY’s rescue and recovery efforts at Ground Zero.

Yes, Phil Burns has some stories to tell, and he tells these stories in a great new book, Laughter, Tears & Muffled Drums, a book that is sure to be in everyone's library.

5 1/2" x 8 1/2", 320 pages, hardcover, ISBN: 1-879848-25-2, BL3519 / $27.95

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